Tag Archives: Climate Change

by | 2010-12-10 · 20:32

RELEASE: Cancun–Activists Occupy Lobby during Climate Talks

Global Justice Ecology Project Press Release     10 December 2010
(GJEP statement follows Release)

Photos: http://climatevoices.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/photo-essay-moon-palace-occupation-for-climate-justice/

Outrage at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Moon Palace Occupation Demands Climate Justice
UNFCCC Now the World Carbon Trading Organization

Cancun, Mexico–At 1:15 PM on the last day of the UN climate talks, a dozen participants staged an un-permitted action at the Moon Palace where the climate negotiations were taking place, to protest the silencing of civil society voices by the UNFCCC. Their mouths gagged with “UNFCCC,” they locked arms in front of the escalators leading to the closed chambers where high-level climate negotiations were taking place.

The group stood their ground amid an onrush of security, as Anne Petermann of Global Justice Ecology Project, Deepak Rugani of Biofuelwatch and Global Forest Coalition, and Rebecca Leonard of Focus on the Global South shouted, “The UN is silencing dissent!” and other slogans referring to the shut down of people’s voices at the climate talks.

“We took this action because the voices of indigenous peoples, of women, of small island countries, of the global south, must be heard!” they demanded.

Nicola Bullard of Focus on the Global South, who was standing by, said, “What we see here is a group of people representing voices silenced by the U.N. process. In the past few weeks we’ve seen the exclusion of countries of the global south, and their proposals ignored. We’ve seen activists and representatives from civil society excluded from the meetings and actually expelled from the UN Climate conference. This action was taken to show the delegates here that we think this process is unjust, that there are voices that must be heard, and that there are perspectives and ideas and demands that must be included in the debates being held in this building. These decisions are far too important to be left to politicians and big business. We need to open up this up to include the voices of the people and the voices of the South.”

Participants in the action were finally forced out of the building by security, but refused to unlock their arms despite security manhandling.  They were expelled from the UN Conference, their accreditation badges taken away, and put on a bus that took them to the Villa Climatica, miles away from the Moon Palace.

Contact: Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology Project +52.998.167.8131 (Cancun mobile)
or +1.802.578.0477 (U.S. mobile)

###
___________________________________________________

Global Justice Ecology Project Statement:
The Silencing of Dissent within the UNFCCC

Global Justice Ecology Project took action today to protest the silencing of dissent within the UN Climate negotiations. Anyone whose interests do not reflect those of the global elite is being marginalized, ignored and shut out of the talks.

At the UN Climate Talks in Copenhagen last year, dissent was criminalized and activists charged with terrorism for organizing the “Reclaim Power” protest. Here we are seeing a continuation of this trend with a zero-tolerance policy for dissenting voices.

Global Justice Ecology Project also undertook this action in memory of Lee Kyung Hae, the South Korean Farmer and La Via Campesina member who martyred himself at the in protest against the WTO here seven years ago. In 2003 the fight was against the repressive trade policies of the WTO. Today the struggle is against the repressive position of the UNFCCC, which has become the World Carbon Trade Organization, and is forcing developing countries to accept policies that go against the interests of their citizens and the majority of the world’s inhabitants.

REDD – the scheme of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation that is being pushed through here, despite widespread concern about the human rights and ecological catastrophe it may bring, is a prime example of the kind of market-driven, top down policies of the UNFCCC that will allow business as usual to continue beyond all natural limits. These unjust policies will severely impact forest-dependent and indigenous peoples, campesinos, and marginalized peoples across the world.

From before the opening of the UN climate talks in Cancun on 29 November 2, through to the final moments, the atmosphere at here has been one of marked by exclusion, marginalization, and silencing of voices.

When the UNFCCC’s negotiating text was released on 24 November, all language from the Cochabamba People’s Agreement – a document developed by 35,000 people- had been removed. In its place, was a warmed version of the unjust Copenhagen Accord.

Arriving in Cancun, UN climate conference participants found an armed citadel, a civil society space set literally miles away from the negotiations, inflated prices and hours of travel daily. For NGOs and civil society groups, as well as for the smaller and less economically empowered delegations from the less developed countries, such obstacles are crippling.

Activists and representatives from civil society have been systematically excluded from the meetings and even expelled from the UNFCCC itself. When voices have been raised in Cancun, badges have been stripped. Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network lost one precious day of negotiations due to the suspension of his badge for simply speaking in public. Youth delegates were barred for spontaneously taking action against a permitting process for protests made unwieldy and inaccessible.  NGO delegates were banned from the Moon Palace simply for filming these protests.
The exclusion and silencing of civil society voices here  in Cancun mirrors the larger exclusion and silencing here of the majority of people – indigenous peoples, women, youth, small farmers, developing countries– whose position does not reflect that of the global elite.

This is why, in solidarity with our allies from oppressed communities in the North and the South, we took action to demand justice in the climate negotiations.
www.globaljusticeecology.org
www.wordpress.climatevoices.com

Comments Off on RELEASE: Cancun–Activists Occupy Lobby during Climate Talks

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | · 19:35

Photo Essay: Moon Palace Occupation

Global Justice Ecology Project staged an occupation of the Moon Palace today in protest of the unjust UN climate negotiations going on there.  We protested the UN’s crushing of dissent and the marginalization of the voices of women, Indigenous Peoples, developing countries, small island nations, small farmers and environmental groups inside its fenced off grounds.  A GJEP statement about the protest will follow.

All photos by Orin Langelle/ Global Justice Ecology Project-Global Forest Coalition

The day began with Diana Pei Wu, a member of the GJEP delegation, being ejected from the climate negotiations for filming a youth protest earlier in the week. Democracy Now! filmed the incident.

At the occupation, GJEP Executive Director denounces the exclusion of indigenous peoples’ voices at the UN Climate talks

GJEP Board member Hiroshi Kanno is manhandled by security during the occupation as part of the effort to make the protesters move

Youth  took part in the occupation to protest the exclusion of youth voices in decisions about their future

Protesters held strong in the face of UN security intimidation

Deepak Rughani, of BiofuelWatch speaks out against false solutions to climate change

Comments Off on Photo Essay: Moon Palace Occupation

Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Justice, Photo Essays by Orin Langelle, UNFCCC

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | 2010-12-09 · 09:58

In Cancun, protest breaks out against REDD

Cross-posted from The Hindu

Meena Menon

Members of La Via Campesina and other groups condemn market-based solutions

Two protesters from environmental groups hold up a banner against the REDD plus proposal, outside the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, on Tuesday.

CANCUN: Hector Rodriguez, who runs an alternative radio station in Cancun called Reptil, decided on a novel way to protest the commercialisation of forestry.

As hundreds of people marched to the venue of the United Nations Climate Change Conference on Tuesday, Mr. Rodriguez walked up to the posse of Mexican policemen with riot shields and launched into an impassioned plea to help Mother Earth.

“Help, help me,” he pleaded to the policemen, who quickly moved back, unsure of how to react. Hector’s clothes literally made a statement. The white cloth that barely covered him screamed: ‘No to REDD’ and ‘No to capitalism of forests.’ The protest, organised by La Via Campesina and other groups with an estimated 3,000-5,000 people, was against market-based solutions to climate change and opposed Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) plus, a proposal that seeks to help people manage forests and sequester carbon, among other things.

The heavily guarded road leading to the venue, Moon Palace, was barricaded. A helicopter circled over the march. However, small groups protested along the road. Posters reading ‘The Earth is not for sale,’ ‘life or death,’ and ‘No to REDD,’ reflected some of the themes of the protest. ‘Let’s change the system, not the climate,’ said the others.

Social movements and civil society representatives, together with Bolivian Ambassador Pablo Solon and Chief Paraguayan Adviser Miguel Lovera, joined the small farmers, indigenous people, women, environmental groups and other activists who marched for hours in the blazing sun. The march ended in a meeting of sorts. The Mexican authorities had lined up large numbers of federal policemen along the way to Moon Palace.

Meanwhile, at a press conference at Moon Palace, La Via Campesina, Mr. Solon, Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network, Ricardo Navarro of Friends of the Earth International and others condemned the “false solutions and backroom deals” in the negotiations currently under way. They called for worldwide actions for climate solutions based on traditional indigenous knowledge, community-based practices and human rights.

The press conference ended with Luis Henrique Moura of MST, the landless workers’ movement of Brazil, leading the group in the chant: ‘Globalise the struggle, globalise hope!’ The group staged a small protest there, shouting ‘No REDD, no REDD.’

“We have called for 1,000 Cancuns around the world today,” said Josie Riffaud of La Via Campesina, referring to the need for grass-roots communities to take the lead in proposing solutions to the ecological crisis. “The first of these took place this [Tuesday] morning inside the Moon Palace.” A small tableau was created at Cancun Messe, also a conference venue, highlighting the consequences of not addressing climate change.

Anne Petermann of Global Justice Ecology Project referred to Lee Kyung Hae, the South Korean farmer and La Via Campesina member, who took his life during protests against the World Trade Organisation here in 2003, wearing a sign saying ‘The WTO Kills Farmers.’ “Then we were fighting against the World Trade Organisation,” she said. “Today, we have to fight the World Carbon Trade Organisation.”

Representatives of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America which comprises nations of South America and the Caribbean (ALBA) countries also expressed their solidarity with the people.

Comments Off on In Cancun, protest breaks out against REDD

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | 2010-12-08 · 13:06

Protests Inside and Outside COP-16 Climate Summit Expose the Corrupt COP Process and Uphold the Cochabamba People’s as the Path towards Real Solutions

Indigenous Environmental Network and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance march with thousands in Cancun to Demand Respect for Indigenous Rights and a Rejection of REDD

Cross-posted from Indigenous Environmental Network

Cancún, Q. Roo, Mexico, December 7, 2010 – As thousands of people marched today on the COP-16 climate summit to condemn the false solutions and backroom deals being pushed in the negotiations, solidarity actions unfolded in over 100 cities around the world. The march was organized by La Via Campesina, the world’s largest federation of peasant and smallholder farmers, and was the anchor action of the 1000 Cancúns Global Day of Action for Climate Justice.

The diverse array of social movement organizations, representing Indigenous peoples, small farmers, youth, communities impacted by the climate change to call for mobilizations and actions worldwide for climate solutions based in traditional Indigenous knowledge, community-based practices, human rights and the rights of nature.

Simultaneously, the press conference hosted by Global Justice Ecology Project and organized by La Via Campesina, Indigenous Environmental Network and Friends of the Earth International turned into a spontaneous action as speakers expressed anger over the direction of the climate talks in Cancún. Following the press conference, activists from Youth 4 Climate Justice and Grassroots Global Justice led the protest out of the climate talks.

Anne Petermann of Global Justice Ecology Project opened the press conference by evoking the name of Lee Kyung Hae, the South Korean farmer and La Via Campesina member who took his life during mobilizations against the World Trade Organization here in 2003 wearing a sign saying “The WTO Kills Farmers.” “Then we were fighting against the World Trade Organization,” Petermann said. “Today we have to fight the World Carbon Trade Organization.”

Tom Goldtooth, the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network explained why so many people around the world were taking action. “It is clear that the false solutions offered at this COP-16 and previous COPs are being used to create markets and generate capital without regard to the fundamental concern for reducing emissions. The Cochabamba People’s Agreement remains a statement of the people of the world and against the commercialization of our climate, our air, our forests, our water and our very existence as humanity but it has been unilaterally deleted in the current negotiating text. As indigenous peoples, social movements and affected peoples we reject the carbon market mechanisms of REDD.”

Mari Rose Taruc of the Asia Pacific Environmental Network and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance described the situation facing her community of Richmond, California which lives in the shadow of a massive Chevron refinery. “Our communities are already dying from pollution. Unfortunately the UN process is focused on market based mechanisms that will allow companies like Chevron to buy offsets instead of reducing emissions at their source, creating more toxic hot spots in low income communities of color.”

Representatives of ALBA countries, Miguel Lovera, Chief Adviser of Paraguay and Paul Oquin of Nicaragua also expressed their solidarity with the people and condemned the moves of developed countries to avoid their historical responsibility and climate debt.

“We are here as young people from impacted communities to make sure that our voices are heard and respected,” said Kari Fulton, founding member of Youth 4 Climate Justice. Fulton continued, “Whether you live in the forest, whether you live in the hood, you will be impacted by false solutions. And REDD, REDD+, REDD++, is a false solution that will create a market in forests at the expense of human rights and the environment. We are here to say we want you to protect the Rights of Mother Earth and the voices of the people.”

Following the press conference, activists from Youth for Climate Justice and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance led a protest out of the press conference and onto the front stairs, where Bolivian Ambassador Pablo Solon spoke to the crowd and the gathered media.

Solon stated, “What is most important is the struggle of the people and their demands for real solutions to climate change… Every year, 300,000 people die because of natural disasters caused by climate change. This will grow to millions if we do not have, here, a real agreement, instead of a Cancun-hagen”.

The youth activists went on to loudly denounce the inaccessibility and unjust nature of the talks and express outrage over having been repeatedly denied permission to hold a youth delegation protest on the UN grounds. As the youth marched away, they were accosted by UN security, stripped of their badges, put onto buses and evicted from the climate conference.

Tom Goldtooth, Pablo Solon and other delegates were later able to make their way to join the thousands-strong People’s Assembly for Environmental and Climate Justice, held in the street less than two miles from the official climate conference.

Comments Off on Protests Inside and Outside COP-16 Climate Summit Expose the Corrupt COP Process and Uphold the Cochabamba People’s as the Path towards Real Solutions

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , ,

by | · 12:27

ALBA Governments Join La Via Campesina to Denounce Elite Climate Talks; Cochabamba People’s Agreement is the peoples’ solution to the Climate Crisis

Source: La Via Campesina

(Cancún, 7 December 2010) La Via Campesina, the world’s largest movement of peasant and smallholder farmers, joined with Pablo Solon, Bolivia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network, Ricardo Navarro of Friends of the Earth International and a number of social movement representatives and government officials from the ALBA countries at COP 16 in Cancún today to condemn the false solutions and backroom deals being pushed in the negotiations, and to call for mobilizations and actions worldwide for climate solutions based in traditional indigenous knowledge, community-based practices, human rights and the rights of nature.

The group held a press conference in the Moon Palace, the opulent resort where the tense and difficult climate convention have moved into the high level phase of negotiations this week. The press conference ended with Luis Henrique Moura of MST, the landless workers’ movement of Brazil, leading the group in the chant “Globalize the struggle, globalize hope!” The group then all walked out of the building with youth from the U.S.-based Grassroots Global Justice Alliance leading chants of “No REDD, no REDD!”

“We have called for 1,000 Cancuns around the world today,” said Josie Riffaud of La Via Campesina, referring to the need for grassroots communities to take the lead in proposing solutions to the ecological crisis. “The first of these took place this morning inside the Moon Palace.”

Anne Petermann of Global Justice Ecology Project opened the event by evoking the name of Lee Kyung Hae, the South Korean farmer and La Via Campesina member who took his life during mobilizations against the World Trade Organization here in 2003 wearing a sign saying “The WTO Kills Farmers.”

“Then we were fighting against the World Trade Organization,” Petermann said. “Today we have to fight the World Carbon Trade Organization,” said Petermann.

“We see that the Mexican government is attempting to get an agreement out of Cancun, but with the spirit of Copenhagen, both in the process and in the content,” said Ricardo Navarro of Friends of the Earth International. “We are bearing witness to parallel meetings and secret negotiations.”

Mari Rose Taruc of the Asia Pacific Environmental Network spoke about the 1,000 Cancuns happening in the United States. “We have actions and events in over 30 states in the U.S. organized by people suffering impacts of pollution and climate change.”

Representatives of ALBA countries also expressed their solidarity with the people and condemned the moves of developed countries to avoid their historical responsibility and climate debt. “There is a lot of talk here in Cancun about money, about chainsaws and about plantations but there is little talk about forests or about the real work of the people who confront climate change everyday.” said Miguel Lovera, Chief Adviser of Paraguay. Paul Oquin, Head of the Nicaraguan delegation publicly expressed the support of Nicaragua and the ALBA countries to La Via Campesina and all the social movements in their struggle.

On the steps of the Moon Palace, together with the social movement representatives, Bolivian Ambassador Pablo Solon stated that what is most important is the struggle of the people and their demands for real solutions to climate change. “If the temperature increases to 4 degrees Celsius as we are seeing it now in the negotiations, we are going to see hundreds of thousands of people die. Every year, 300,000 people die because of natural disasters caused by climate change. This will grow to millions if we do not have, here, a real agreement, instead of a Cancun-hagen”.

The press conference and action that followed was coordinated with a march of 5000 people in the streets outside led by La Via Campesina. Social movement and civil society representatives together with Bolivian Ambassador Pablo Solon and Chief Paraguayan Adviser Miguel Lovera then went outside to join the small farmers, indigenous people, women, environmentally affected peoples, environmental organizations and other social movements and activists who marched for hours in the Mexican sun, culminating in a People’s Assembly in the street.

“Today, there were 1,000 Cancuns all over the world and with this we are sending the message to the governments inside the negotiations that the people have 1,000 solutions to the climate crisis that uphold the rights of the people and Mother Earth,” stated Carlos Marentes of La Via Campesina.

 

Comments Off on ALBA Governments Join La Via Campesina to Denounce Elite Climate Talks; Cochabamba People’s Agreement is the peoples’ solution to the Climate Crisis

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | 2010-12-07 · 20:55

Limited Access and Crack Downs on Civil Society

Civil Society members and guests of GJEP punished for chanting in UN Conference Center

By: Shannon Gibson

Researcher

Ph.D. Candidate

University of Miami

The Secretariat issued a new Information Note to Intergovernmental and Non-Governmental Organizations today which details the access restrictions for IGO and NGOs as the High Level Segment commences this afternoon.  Reports from our own members (the Climate Justice Now! constituency within the Environmental NGO’s delegation, indicate that we’ll have a whopping 2 passes for plenary access (mind you there are hundreds accredited under our network).  As I type this now, I myself am sitting in a plenary hall watching the Opening Ceremony of the High Level Segment via a live feed over closed circuit televisions.  Additionally, the Note ominously states, “Participants are however reminded of the building fire regulations, and that it is the responsibility of the secretariat to ensure implementation of policies for the safety and security of the participants on the UN conference premises.”  Last I checked, not that many high-level ministers were coming this week….maybe a few dozen.  How an extra few dozen high-level ministers (even with their entourages) justifies the exclusion of hundreds/thousands of civil society members sure beats me.  But then again, they used that same logic on us last year in Copenhagen…..

In terms of action crack downs, following a GJEP-hosted press conference inside the Moon Palace, United Nations security confiscated badges and forced activists engaging in an ‘non-sanctioned’ verbal chant into buses which transported them back to the Cancunmesse (the convention location where most NGO side events and meeting spaces are located…notably a 15 minute bus ride from the main plenary locations).  Below is an excerpt from an email sent by a member of Climate Justice Now! on what she witnessed (names removed to prevent future UN access restrictions):

Today following the CJN press conference in the Moon Palace, 3 of the activists…were very vocal and leading the chants, speaking to eager reporters who taped their speeches.  Then the UN security got a ‘deportation bus’ to usher them out of the Moon Palace, back to Cancunmesse and then out (presumably), after first confiscating their badges.

I was standing near the three of them, behind some reporter, and holding up the back of my badge which had the anti-REDD sticker on the back.  I reminded the speakers to announce their contact info to the media, so they could track them down later.  At that point a security officer asked to see my badge…I said he could see everything printed on it very well, without removing my badge.  He then snatched it from me by force.  I shouted to the media, who were still witnessing the ‘deportation’ of the 3 activists.  I told them my badge was taken without grounds, because I asked a simple question.  One journalist pressed him for an explanation, he said “I don’t have to explain, I am UN security”.  The journalist said of course you have to.  I guess eventually he decided it was bad PR, so after taking down my info, he returned my badge to me.   [A colleague] from GAIA saw when the guy snatched my badge, and came to ask him why he did it.  Immediately another security went after her!  He took down her info, but didn’t take away her badge.

Tomorrow, those of us whose names were taken may find ourselves blocked out.  But in front of one of the remaining secret service person, I told the reporters that I will let them know if I got excluded in later days because of today’s incidence.  Hope that deters them a bit.

For a photo essay of the inside protests by GJEP Director Orin Langelle, click here.

Shannon Gibson is working with Global Justice Ecology Project during COP16/CMP6 to provide daily negotiation updates and policy analysis.  She is a Ph.D. candidate in International Studies at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, where she researches issues pertaining to global environmental politics and global civil society.

Comments Off on Limited Access and Crack Downs on Civil Society

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

by | 2010-12-03 · 19:28

Photo Essay: Second Indigenous Peoples Protest at Climate Summit

The following photos were taken in the late afternoon of Thursday, December 3rd, outside of the Moon Palace, where countries from around the world are negotiating its fate.  This protest was organized by the International Forum on Indigenous Issues.   Indigenous peoples, whose rights have been historically ignored by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, held a protest to demand the inclusion of their rights in any climate agreement.

Indigenous Peoples have been some of the traditional caretakers of the forests and it is on Indigenous lands where most of the Earth’s intact ecosystems can be found.  These lands are now under threat because of the determination of Industrialized countries to create market-based climate schemes.  Because they are based on the market, these schemes threaten to worsen the problem of global land grabs and displace Indigenous communities from their traditional lands.

This protest followed another protest earlier in the day organized by Indigenous Environmental Network, that targeted Canada’s tarsands gigaproject.  To view that photo essay, click here

All photos below by Anne Petermann/ Global Justice Ecology Project – Global Forest Coalition.

The protest turned into a media feeding frenzy.

Comments Off on Photo Essay: Second Indigenous Peoples Protest at Climate Summit

Filed under Posts from Anne Petermann

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | 2010-12-02 · 15:10

Burning Forests to Save the Climate? Side Event Tonight 8:15pm

Global Justice Ecology Project Media Alert              2 December, 2010

Burning Forests to Save the Climate?

COP16 SIDE EVENT: Thursday 2 December, 20:15, Cancunmesse, Sandia Room

Large Scale Bioenergy, REDD and GMO Trees

(Sponsored by Global Justice Ecology Project and BiofuelWatch)

The scaling up of industrial wood-based bioenergy in Europe and North America and the promotion of REDD, biochar and GMO trees in climate mitigation schemes will have serious impacts on forests, forest dependent peoples and the climate.

A panel of experts from Global Justice Ecology Project, BiofuelWatch, Global Forest Coalition and Friends of the Earth Brazil will discuss the social and ecological implications of simultaneously attempting to reduce emissions from deforestation while creating a massive new demand for wood to produce electricity and liquid fuels.

Speakers include:

Camila Moreno, Friends of the Earth Brazil

Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology Project

Deepak Rughani, Global Forest Coalition

Rachel Smolker, BiofuelWatch

Contact:        Anne Petermann, +52.998.167.8131

Comments Off on Burning Forests to Save the Climate? Side Event Tonight 8:15pm

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , ,